1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for making snow, and particularly to an apparatus and method for producing snow suitable for household and farm use.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many popular winter sports and leisure time activities, such as sledding, snowboarding, skiing, etc., require that there be snow on the ground. While many areas of the country experience cold ambient air temperatures for extended time periods during the winter season, precipitation levels are variable and often below normal, so that there is insufficient snow on the ground. The dearth of snowfall may be disappointing not only for adults, but also for children and the parents of those children who would prefer that the youngsters had a viable choice of outdoor recreational activities during the cold weather.
One solution is to travel to winter resort areas, such as ski slopes, which may be located at higher elevations which receive a greater accumulation of snow, and which may make a substantial investment in commercial equipment for making snow artificially to supplement natural snowfalls. The problem with this approach is that such trips may require time off from work, and even weekend trips may be expensive after taking into consideration the cost of travel, lodging, food, admission fees, and various and sundry other expenses.
For many people a more practical solution may be a portable, inexpensive, easy to operate snow making apparatus which may be set up and operated in their own backyard, or on the sloping fields of a cooperative neighborhood farmer, when the temperature drops below freezing. The present invention addresses this need in the form of a device for making snow artificially which discharges water from a pressure washer into a stream of compressed air at subfreezing temperatures to produce artificial snow.
A number of devices for making snow are known in the art. Many such devices are geared to fill the need for large volumes of artificial snow for commercial applications, such as ski slopes. Such devices generally employ a mixing chamber in which air and water under pressure are mixed and then ejected into cold ambient air. Improvements in such devices have been described to alter the quality of the snow, to improve maintenance by preventing freezing of the mixture in the mixing chamber or at the discharge nozzle, and to increase the volume of snow produced or the ejection pattern.
Representative devices are described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,010,660, issued Nov. 28, 1961 to F. Barrett (large diameter, elongated tube widest at the middle and tapering at both ends); U.S. Pat. No. 3,298,612, issued Jan. 17, 1967 to R. L. Torrens (water inlet and compressed air inlet joined at acute angle at the entrance of the mixing chamber and a plurality of baffles disposed in the mixing chamber); U.S. Pat. No. 3,408,005, issued Oct. 29, 1968 to Struble, et al. (water jacket disposed about the mixing chamber and a helical spring disposed in the mixing chamber to impart corkscrew mixing); U.S. Pat. No. 3,716,190, issued Feb. 13, 1973 to J. A. Lindlof (water conduit having a venturi tube with compressed air introduced at 90xc2x0 angle into the throat of the venturi, and vanes in the discharge nozzle to cause turbulence); and U.S. Pat. No. 3,829,013, issued Aug. 13, 1974 to H. R. Ratnik (a blocking member in the mixing chamber with sloping walls and an anvil with a concave surface supported by ribs).
Additional examples are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,831,844 (apparatus with a pair of spaced apart discharge nozzles); U.S. Pat. No. 3,969,908, issued Jul. 20, 1976 to Lawless, et al. (an apparatus which includes cold air produced by a Vortex tube for producing snow regardless of the ambient temperature); U.S. Pat. No. 4,194,689, issued Mar. 25, 1980 to R. M. Ash (concentric tubes with aligned orifices, the inner tube having compressed air which forces water in the outer tube through the orifices in the outer tube); U.S. Pat. No. 4,275,833, issued Jun. 30, 1981 to B. H. Fairbank (similar to the Ash patent, but with curvilinear tubes); and U.S. Pat. No. 4,793,554, issued Dec. 27, 1988 to Kraus, et al. (a water tube inside an air jacket, the air entering the water tube through orifices at a 15xc2x0 angle, the stream diverging, passing through an orifice plate, a converging tube, and out a nozzle).
Still other examples are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,993,635 and 5,890,654, issued Feb. 19, 1991 and Apr. 6, 1999, respectively, to H. K. Dupre (snow making tower with a plurality of water discharge nozzles angles outward angularly and a plurality of air discharge nozzles directed normal to the tube and into the discharged stream of water); Swiss Patent No. 411,007, published Oct. 31, 1966 (device with a pair of homogenation chambers and a pair of discharge nozzles); Canadian Patent No. 952,153, issued Jul. 30, 1974 (device with compressed air flowing through a disc with slanted slots in the mixing chamber for imparting a spiral motion to the mixture); and International Patent No. WO 92/08936, published May 29, 1992 (snow cannon with water and air mixture chilled by liquid nitrogen at the discharge nozzle).
None of the above inventions and patents, taken either singly or in combination, is seen to describe the instant invention as claimed.
The snow making apparatus includes an air tube and a water tube disposed in parallel relation and spaced apart by a predetermined distance. The air tube has a first end and a second end, the first end having an air inlet for receiving an air hose connected to an air compressor, the second end having a plug with a small diameter orifice defined therein for the egress of compressed air. The water tube has a first end and a second end, the first end having a water inlet for receiving a hose connected to a pressure washer which delivers water at 1200 p.s.i., and a second end coupled to a length of flexible copper tubing, the copper tubing being bent in order to discharge water into the stream of air discharged from the orifice at the second end of the air tube. The end of the copper tubing is compressed or crimped in order to discharge the water into the air stream in droplets or thin sheets. The water freezes upon exposure to cold, ambient air, the compressed air atomizing the water and prolonging the duration of the water droplets"" exposure to the cold atmosphere, resulting in a blowing fog of snow.
Accordingly, it is a principal object of the invention to provide a snow making apparatus for producing snow artificially in cold ambient air.
It is another object of the invention to provide a snow making apparatus for producing sufficient snow in a residential back yard for sledding, snowboarding, practice skiing, and other winter sports and leisure activities.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a device for producing snow in cold weather which is compact, simple in construction, and easy for the average homeowner to deploy and operate.
Still another object of the invention is to provide a snow making apparatus and a method for making snow which combines water supplied under pressure from a pressure washer and compressed air to produce snow in a subfreezing ambient atmosphere.
It is an object of the invention to provide improved elements and arrangements thereof in an apparatus for the purposes described which is inexpensive, dependable and fully effective in accomplishing its intended purposes.
These and other objects of the present invention will become readily apparent upon further review of the following specification and drawings.